The Black Rose
by Bugnuks And Crossbows
Summary: After an accident during a simple mission, Weiß is divided And the lost kitten is losing his fragile grasp on sanity. [Revised Chapter Four, finally]
1. Prologue

_-The Black Rose- _

Somewhere out in the cold, Omi sat looking at the water, while stars reflected off it's mirror-like surface. It was cold, sure, but it was a known fact that cold numbed all pain - Well actually, it numbed pretty much everything - which was something he needed more than anything in the world right now... except Ken. Omi's hand moved of its own accord to brush nearly frozen tears off his cheeks at the thought of the brunette soccer player.

He could still remember watching the building collapse in on itself, and the small mushroom cloud that was made as it fell, all towards the middle. Glass was shattering everywhere around him before he'd managed to escape, but he wasn't able to contact the others at all, and he couldn't find them when he searched. Eventually he ended up just wandering away, trying to think of a way they might have escaped, or to forget it ever happened.

He wanted to forget he'd ever met Ken, Yohji or Ran, just like he'd forgotten about his kidnapping. He wanted to leave and never return, or better yet... He wanted to fall into the water below, and never resurface. Perhaps he could find Ken again in heaven.. Or hell as the case may be.

_You're lying_, a voice in his head accused. _You want to remember them, because they're part of who you've come to be! Your family...  
_  
Although the voice was correct, it was something he didn't feel he could survive living through. Not mentally in anycase.

Small voices whispered deep in the back of his mind, small whispered memories of the people he'd grown to call family, and the good times they'd shared. Images of Yohji and memories of his teasing and such echoed through his head, and the ever thoughtful Ran demanding the girls leave if they weren't going to buy anything. He had memories of walking past the hospital and meeting up with their red haired co-worker, and ending up walking home with him in a truely companionable silence, as well as the soccerball to the head upon reaching their destination.

He remembered the fangirls, grabbing at him and the others, and Yohji pleasantly directing the younger girls towards himself, and Ken pleading for help. He had many flashes of Ken, all filled with regret. All these images swam through him in an instant, and his last consious thought was:_ I wonder if he knew...?_

* * *

Ken groaned as he pulled himself from the ruins of the building, doing his damnest to stand, and finally managing it. His clothes were nearly shreds, he noted a little absently, and he didn't even want to imagine how many injuries he had. As rubble slid around, he could hear a couple more moans and groans and a grumble of 'Damnit, now I need a new suit,' belonging to Yohji.

He sighed in relief and turned to face the other two members who were in the hall with him as they headed for the window. Ran was also in tatters, though he seemed to have protected his skin from too much damage with the trench coat he wore, which was in a sad state of disrepair. All the red haired boy had received for cuts was a fairly long, shallow cut from his temple to the tip of his jaw.

As for the eldest blonde, he was brushing dust off himself, muttering a bit. He seemed to be in almost perfect condition despite his also badly battered outfit. Ken supposed it was a good thing they were near the top of the building, or they would have been squished by the above structure - as it was they had ended up with a few injuries.

_Blond's... injuries... Someones missi - _"Omi!" Ken looked around frantically, and his outburst seemed to catch the attention of the others, who also discovered that their young leader was missing.

The three of them began to shift through rubble in various areas, but were unsuccessful in finding the blue-eyed teen. As Ken continued, his hands scratched and cut from digging so much, even as Yohji and Ran grabbed his shoulders to pull him away, Ken found a small dart, deeply imbedded in a piece of splintered wood, that took mere moments to identify as Omi's crossbow. Around this area there was a small amount of blood that ran down various pieces of cement and wood, but they hadden't found any of their prey's bodies down here, and none of them had been here when they woke.

Ken was now sitting numbly, looking at the dart, his heart painfully clenched. He could hear murmurs of the other two's voices in the background, but he couldn't've cared less what they were saying at the moment. The only thing that mattered to him was finding Omi, alive and well - And chances of that seemed to be growing slimmer by the minute.

Finally Yohji and Ran picked up the struggling Ken and hauled him away from the ruins of the mansion they had been in. Ken was squirming for all his worth against the two older men, to no avail, and ended up staring forelornly at the disappearing form of crumbled building.

Omi's resting place.

* * *

Finally, after so long, I got back to working on this; it was in _desperate_ need of revising. 


	2. Chapter One

Ken sat quietly at Omi's grave, thinking deeply about things. For the last three weeks, this had been some sort of tradition. He would visit Omi's grave daily, sometimes twice if he needed advice on something, at which point he would ask Omi, and eventually leave with some sort of solution.

The grave was like that of a traditional Japanese grave. Two concrete platforms, one slightly smaller than the other were topped by a larger upright stone, with engraved writing, naming this to be Omi's place of eternal resting. Though it didn't house his body, it was where Ken would sit and converse with his quiet, energetic soul.

It was kind of ironic, the flowers that lay on Omi's grave. He had something to take with him from both lives. The flowers, from his many cheery days working in the flower shop, dodging girls, making people's days bright and sunny with not more than a smile, or kind word. And the eternal cold darkness of Weiß that would linger over him into his next life, hopefully a better one than the one he'd lived previously.

Ken glanced at the flowers decorating Omi's grave, and frowned a little. They were too disorganized to be something of Omi's, he thought, moving closer to carefully arrange them, to suit Omi. The girls from the shop had apparently thought carefully over the flowers they chose, but you could still tell which flowers were from Ken, Yohji and Ran, and the ones from the fangirl's.

It was littered with white carnations, many different chrysanthemums, cyclamen, white hyacinth, freesia for obvious reasons, poppies, tea roses, rosemary, statice, water lilies, and more than enough zinnia to last anyone a lifetime. But that was on the lower platform of the grave, now neatly organized. Meanwhile, on the platform above were ten flowers, set carefully around the upright stone. The first set of three were a red rose, a pink carnation, and a single yellow zinnia. The second set of three were an orchid, an iris, and a eucharis lily.

The last was a set of four: A gentian, an arbutus, an azalea and a pink camellia.

Ken sighed, absently holding a freesia in his hands. "If it were me in your place, what do you think you'd put here?" he asked the small white flower. "Or if you were here looking at your own grave, then what would you send to the rest of us?"

Ken smiled slightly as a light wind blew the light flower out of his hand, onto the upper platform, lying horizontally across the gentian. Things like this made him wonder what Omi was trying to say. It was probably a way of reassuring him, and it worked wonders. Omi had that affect on people, always making them feel better.

"I miss you... I wish I could have protected you better. I hope you forgive me for not being there for you." Ken sighed, petting the side of the smooth cold stone lightly.

The branches of the willow tree behind him were blown forwards a little, along with Ken's hair, as another icy gust of wind blew through the cemetery. The three boys in mourning at the koneko expected snow sometime soon, which only made Ken more upset. Winter was one of the most fun times of year while Omi was around. He used to drag Ken outside for the sake of building snowmen, and igloos, and little walls to hide behind as they threw snowballs at each other. It used to be time just for the two of them, beating on each other, rolling around in the snow, laughing, and being normal. Now it would be a time of mourning for Weiß. Most specifically, for Ken.

Patting the stone once more, Ken stood and walked out of the cemetery, tucking his half frozen hands into his pockets. The funeral had a large turnout, but the fangirl's gave the other three boys their space, without question. Occasionally one or two would give them a hug, and an 'I'm so sorry this happened,' but no one asked questions, which was a good thing - They didn't have any answers.

Ken sighed a bit as he headed home. Ran and Yohji had been bickering every since Omi had died, and Ken didn't have a moment of peace as long as he remained at the koneko, which was why he tended to stick to Omi's grave, or the park, or somewhere as far from them as possible.

On top of that, Manx hadn't come by with a mission since the incident, and the one time she _had _come, it was to say they were looking for a replacement, and that Ran was their new leader. These words served to do nothing but anger the three other boys, and both Ran and Yohji had to keep Ken from brutally injuring the secretary.

As he walked into the koneko, he was surprised to find silence. Had Ran finally killed Yohji? Or did Yohji manage to get the better of Ran? Or perhaps he was lucky, and the two of them went out.

"Ken... I was just about to call you." Yohji blinked at him from the kitchen, the phone in his hand.

"Why?" It appeared that Yohji, at least, was still alive.

"...There's something... Something you'll want to see." Yohji told him, leading him into the living room. "We found this while we were cleaning up the shop today, but I don't know where it came from... I haven't seen it before, nor has Aya."

Ran looked up as they entered, then looked back down at a piece of paper in his hands, which eventually ended up looking more like a picture than anything. Ran silently handed the picture over to Ken, who looked at it absently for awhile, before frowning ever so slightly.

In the middle of a big aqua colored room stood two boys. One had dark blue, seemingly black hair, and wide brown eyes, whose arm was around the shoulders of a blonde haired boy, with big blue eyes. The taller, the blue haired boy, looked like he'd been chased around by a water hose, while the Omi twin has a mischievous grin - Probably the holder of aforementioned hose.

"Th-this is...?"

"Yeah.."

"But... We know all of Omi's friends. I don't recognize him."

"Us either."

"So he could be... alive?"

"We never found his body, did we?" Yohji reminded him. "And god damn we looked hard."

"...Why wouldn't he come back then?"

"If we thought he was dead, then don't you think he might've thought the same?" Ran spoke up.

"But, Omi's the optimistic one! He doesn't think like that."

"It's pretty hard to be optimistic when a building fell on us, Ken." Yohji reasoned.

"...We're going back to the site, I assume?"

"Of course."

* * *

Ken stared at the hated cement building whose rubble had somehow expanded to fill the whole clearing on the mountain side. It wasn't more than a fifteen-minute walk into town, and less than a six-minute drive, full of absolutely gorgeous scenery. But Ken had been too excited to pay attention to the scenery. Omi might have been alive the whole time, for heavens sake!

"Kenken, go to the far end of the building there, I'll take this end, and Aya'll take care of the far side, then we'll tackle the remaining side together. Good luck everyone." Yohji smiled.

"...I thought Aya was the leader."

"I'm supposed to be." Ran raised an eyebrow at Yohji, but headed off nonetheless.

Ken walked along side Ran, on his way to the other side of the rubble. Both of them were practically glowing with hope, though Ken was much more obvious about it than Ran. They were just asking to be injured all over again.

"Good luck," Ken said, as he and Ran split up, and even got a small 'You too,' as his reply, making him smiled a bit.

Ken was probably the person who searched hardest, proof of this being the scratches and cuts that tore apart his skin, and allowed blood to flow. But now there wasn't anyone who could stop him from searching, and he was going to find evidence of Omi being alive, so help him God he would.

As afternoon faded to evening, and light became pale, Ran and Yohji met up at the last side of the rubble, while Ken sat amidst the chared cement, having made a little seat out of the mess that had once been a building. He held cradled in his arms a small mutilated body.

Blondish hair was slightly burnt, and he was injured beyond recognition. Ken had pocketed the familiar communication device that he had found out near the trees, and continued looking, only to turn around and see a bloodied hand laying out on a piece of cement, connected to the body.

When the others found no sign of Ken after night had fallen, they set out to find him, to find him in that exact same spot, with the body cradled in his arms. They eventually pried the body out of Ken's hands, slung it over Ran's shoulder and helped Ken stand, leading him back to the car.

Ken stared at the body that Ran held while Yohji drove. The skin tone of what skin was left looked about right and it was obvious the boy was around eighteen, perhaps slightly younger. He could easily have been Omi, but something was wrong about the way he looked - aside from that he looked like someone had set Farfarello on him and said he was God.

Ken passed out before they'd reached the Koneko, and had nightmares that had haunted him since Omi'd died, but now with much more detail.

-----

_Omi typed on the computer, the data almost at one hundred percent. His radio crackled, and Ken's voice came through. _

_"Ok, Omi, all set to go on your command!" _

_"...Great, Ken-kun, two percent left to download," he informed the older brunette. "What about the targets?" _

_"Yohji and Aya are here with me, their all down." _

_"Great!" there was a click as the disk was ejected. "Set it for however long you figure it'll take you to get out, and get moving. I'll meet you guys outside." _

_"Alright, see you there." _

_There was a loud crackle over the headset as Ken set the bombs for five minutes, and Omi grabbed the disk, and tucked it away into his pocket. He ran out into the hall and looked around. Because of the bombs, radio contact would be slightly messed up, making it nearly impossible to contact anyone unless they were within a six foot radius, and even then it wouldn't make any sense to use the headset. _

_The brunette looked around. He was about four stories up, and had five minutes to get the hell out of there, that was a minute and fifteen seconds per floor, and even that would cut it close, but where were the stairs? He was starting to wish the elevators weren't disabled along with the power. Luckily the information they needed was on a laptop that he was able to get working. _

_He dashed down the stairs he'd managed to find, stumbling slightly as he turned the corner at the bottom, and hurried down another flight. He had about one more floor to go when the bombs went off, and the building started crumbling around him. He now dodged falling debris as he searched for the last flight of stairs. His face fell as he turned towards the staircase to find it caved in. He reached for his radio and tried to contact the others, but it was no use as all he got was static. He headed for a window, and tossed the radio out of it in order to break the thick, soundproof glass, and just as he stepped onto the ledge to jump the floor caved under his feet, causing him to slip from the ledge and fall into mess of crumbled building below him. _

_As he hit ground, so did his head, hard enough to knock him out, making him inable to escape as the building continued to crumble. _

_The light brown haired boy's perfect skin was slowly shredded by shards of falling glass from the floors whose glass wasn't knocked out the minute the bombs went off. _

* * *

Ken shifted slightly, and opened his eyes. Something was wrong, he had a feeling in the pit of his stomach about it. Only two seconds later, his room and the hall outside, as well as the rooms to either side of him were filled with his shout of: "It's not HIM!"

Ran grumbled and walked into Ken's room, looking around at Ken's mess with distaste. "What's the problem?" The redhead growled sleepily.

"I-it's not Omi! The body! Its someone else! His hair is a light brown, Omi's is honey blonde!" Ken explained to the redhead, who quickly blinked a few times.

"...I'll get Yohji." Ran walked out of the room, while Ken plucked at the blanket, idly realizing that the others had treated and wrapped his injured hands which made him smile slightly, not without a trace of sadness.

"Omi used to do that..." He told himself absently, looking up as Yohji and Ran made their way through his disaster to Ken's bed. "Hi.."

"It's not Omi you say?" Yohji questioned wearily.

"That's right! If you look at the kids hair, its light brown, Omi's is honey blonde!" Ken nodded, like an exasperated kid trying to make a stubborn adult understand.

"You should know, shouldn't you, Kenken? You spent enough time looking at the kid... Both of them."

Ken frowned. "I only looked so much at the other kid because something looked wrong about him.."

"You mean other than the fact that his skin was practically gone?"

"...Only you could talk about such mutilation like it was last nights soccer game."

"Only you would point it out and relate it to soccer."

"...Shut up." Ken mumbled. "The point is, that kid's not Omi."

"But there weren't any other people in the building! Who else could it have been?"

"...A messenger?" Ran suggested.

"Perhaps..." Yohji shrugged.

"But why weren't we told about it?" was Ken.

"Because they didn't know either."

The three exchanged looks. "...I remember a report on the news about a missing nineteen year old that was reported a few days after the mission, think it might be him?" Ken asked.

"Possibly."

"...Your just a man of many words, aren't you Aya?"

"Yohji, shut up."

"Make me!"

Ken sighed and left his room as the two of them started arguing. Having no where else to go, he grabbed a flashlight and headed out for a walk. Hopefully they'd cool down in a couple hours. Until then, he had basically nothing to do. When the rain started falling, Ken didn't notice, he was rather absorbed in his thoughts. Omi had the potential to be alive, but if he were alive, wouldn't he have come back?

Not if he thought the others were dead, best to stay dead, right? He looked up when he heard a shout as a young girl tumbled down a set of stairs. The door at the top of the stairs was open, and a man stood in the doorway.

"And stay out!" he practically screamed, tossing an empty glass beer bottle towards the girl before closing and locking the door.

Ken ran quickly to the bleeding barely conscious girl, and dropped to her side.

"Are you ok?"

"I..." the girl shifted a bit and winced. "N-no..." she hissed a little in pain, "it hurts. It hurts a lot!"

Ken frowned a bit. "Want me to call an ambulance?"

"P-please..." The girl whispered, before sighing softly and going limp.

Ken pulled out his cell and called the hospital, making sure the girl kept breathing.

"Hello, how may I help you?"

"Uh... There's a girl here... she's really hurt just outside of the store on..." He paused to look at the nearest street number, "420th street."

"..Alright, an ambulance should be there soon."

"Thank you..." Ken said, hanging up. He grabbed a cloth from his pocket, and wrapped it around her upper head - her temple was bleeding heavily. When the ambulance finally arrived, the doctors carefully loaded her onto a stretcher, and told him to climb in, too.

He sat on a small seat attached to the wall, wondering as to why he was asked to come along.

_They must think I'm her brother or boyfriend or something... _He thought, frowning. As they headed for the hospital, the most he thought about was that man in the doorway. Who was he? Why would he hurt this girl who had apparently done nothing wrong?

* * *

After two hours sitting in the waiting room of the hospital, Ken stepped outside to call home, since using cell phones inside the hospital could effect equipment. After two or three rings, Yohji picked up the phone.

"Hello?" He sounded slightly irritated, but resigned.

"Hey Yohji-"

"KEN! Where the hell are you!"

"Erm... In the hospital see-"

"What? What on earth are you doing there?"

"Like I was about to say... I found a girl who was injured to be safe I didn't move her, because I could've injured her more. Instead I called the hospital, and they brought an ambulance. Apparently they think I'm her boyfriend, so they pulled me along."

"...Oh. You had us worried sick, Ken-ken, you shouldn't leave without telling us!"

"Look, Yohji, your not my parent! Stop acting like you are!" Ken frowned, even though over the phone, Yohji would be unable to see it.

"..I'm not, Ken, I'm acting like the concerned friend I am. Why do you have such a problem with that?"

"..."

"You don't like it because that's what Omi used to do, isn't that right?"

"Yohji, is not your place to be the concerned friend, that place is, and always will be reserved for Omi." Ken answered in a voice just above a whisper, then hung up.

* * *

"...I think he's waking up, guys.." a distant voice snaked it's way painfully into his head.

"...Hey... kid.. wake up!" came a second. He turned his head away from the noises, he just wanted to sleep.

"Come on... Wake up!" the first voice again.

"You two are going to suffocate him! Give him some room to breathe!" came a female voice.

He groaned and opened one eye, groaning.

"Whoa... hes got such pretty eyes!" the female voice practically swooned as her face blurred into view. Omi groaned again as his head pulsed, fiercely.

"Go 'way..." he swatted at her and missed, then closed his eye again.

"...He's got a pretty voice too!" her own voice went shrill and Omi could practically picture a scene from the flower shop.

Tears rimmed his eyes for a reason that was beyond him momentarily. As he thought about why this brought about a strange feeling to his chest, a mix of pain and regret that wasn't an all together unwelcome feeling. Almost immediately his head filled with random scenes and he sat abruptly upright and looks around frantically, then blinked and sat, staring at the floor, not caring that there were people asking if he was ok, not caring where he was, not caring about the tears streaming down his face.

All he wanted now was to sulk, or die or something. Of course, they all knew the risks of being assassins, and they knew they'd probably all die at one point or another in a mission, but it seemed so far from reality that he hadn't thought it would happen so soon. There were so many things he'd wanted to say to everyone, and now he'd never be able to.

"Hey! Kid!" a hand appeared in front of his face, waving up and down.

"What..?" he sighed gloomily.

"...What's wrong?" the tall redheaded girl asked, frowning a little.

"...They 're all gone now..." Omi mumbled, not with the smallest strain tied to his tone. "They won't come back... They 're gone..."

"..Who are?"

"...Everyone."

"Kisoka... I think he's... lost it."

"But... What happened?" the redhead ignored a voice out of Omi's vision.

"...Their souls were devoured by the darkness that they pursued."

A brunette boy stepped into his vision, now, and put a hand on Kisoka's shoulder. "Come on, we'll-"

"KEN-KUN!" Omi's eyes took on a slightly deranged look as he dove at the boy and sobbed into his shoulder. "You're alive! You're alive! You weren't taken! I'm sorry! I'm sorry! Please forgive me! Please!"

The brunette looked at Kisoka, who made a few gestures, indicating he should play along.

"...It's ok... shh. You haven't done anything wrong. I don't need to forgive you..." he said quietly, patting the quietly crying boy.

"...Where are the others?" the small blonde asked, as a midnight haired boy crouched down beside Kisoka.

"Kisoka, he's really lost it, we should get him to a doctor..." he whispered to her.

"Not until we try to find out what's happened. He seems to think Aniko is 'Ken'...a friend of his, perhaps. We'll do what we can for him, alright? Then, if there's no improvement, we'll bring him to a doctor. I don't want to put him in with a bunch of those creeps who'll do god knows what to him, unless he really needs to go there, Rin, you know how much I distrust them."

"Alright, Kisoka..." Rin sighed.

* * *

Note:  
Arbutus- Thee Only Do I Love  
Azalea- First Love, Temperance, Romance, Love, Fragile Passion  
Camellia, pink- Longing for You  
Carnation, pink- I'll Never Forget You  
Iris- Your friendship means so much to me, Faith, Hope, Wisdom  
Eucharis Lily- unknown (Sorry guys, I couldn't find it...)  
Zinnia, yellow- Daily Remembrance 


	3. Chapter Two

Omi sat in the room Rin, Kisoka and Aniko had given him in their house. It was the only place he'd been for the last few days. It was all he could do as he tried to understand what was going on around him.

He had no idea where he was, and even less idea why he was there, but he didn't care. Better here than a lot of the other places he could have been, like back at that flower-shop. He vaguely wondered whether or not Kritiker had replaced Weiß, or if they were still looking for replacements. It didn't really matter to him, just so long as they left him alone. Weiß was no longer his concern.

Perhaps they wouldn't replace Weiß, after all. He wished the best for whoever they were replaced with if they actually ended up replacing the assassin team. It wasn't something he had enjoyed doing, but it was the only life he had known for the longest time. He wasn't proud of who he used to be, either, though. So what did that leave him with?

Not a lot, really. And there wasn't anything he could do about it. His life had always been that way. His choices were little to none, usually people made up his mind for him; despite being a leader in name, he was a follower. He could make plans, spend his life researching on people, hacking, and killing people. It almost made his stomach turn to think he could do things like that for so long.

So many people had called him 'innocent' that it made him wonder what they'd think if they knew who, and what, he really was. He held his life in bloodied hands; it wasn't surprising that it was all slipping through his fingers, and there was nothing he could do to stop it.

No matter how many people he got rid of, there would always be more bad people, and he would never forgive the bad ones. No matter what. They had stolen Ken from him. Ken, and Yohji and Ran. He would never get them back, because the bad people had stolen them. They had swallowed them up in their darkness, trapping them in the same way those bad people had trapped his soul. And there was nothing he could do about it.

It bothered him because he was supposed to be protecting them. That was his job as their leader - well, ex-leader. It wasn't what he was supposed to be, it wasn't the kind of person he was, not that anything could take back all the things he had done. Life wasn't that easy.

Another thing that bothered him was Aniko, Rin and Kisoka. They kept talking about him. He could hear them whispering quietly on the other side of his door just before they came in each meal with food. Aniko obviously thought he was crazy, while Rin wasn't sure, and Kisoka refused the concept entirely.

He wasn't all together sure that Aniko was wrong.

Omi sat up and looked out the window to see the sun shining brightly. It brought back memories that he really didn't want. He remembered once after a mission Ken had taken one too many blows to the head and was mumbling incoherently. He'd told Omi his smile out-shined the sun, and that the Gods should envy him for his eternal happiness. The very next day, Omi had told him what he'd said and Ken had just laughed and said: "It's true, 'Mittchi! Perhaps I wasn't as incoherent as you thought."

He laughed slightly at the memory, before heading for the door, the first time he'd left his room for a reason, besides needing a bathroom break.

"Kisoka-chan...?"

Kisoka blinked in surprise at Omi being out of his room, but smiled anyway. "Yes, Omi?"

"…Do you… have a garden?"

"Yeah... But it's in a really bad state of disrepair, why?"

"…Would you mind if I turned the yard into my little flower area?"

"Not at all! Here, come sit and we'll write down some flowers you want to get and some trees too if you want! You can make our yard pretty for us, we're often too busy with work to do things like that," Kisoka smiled, amiably.

"I'd like that... Thank you." Omi sat down beside her and began listing off flowers.

He had decided it would be a memorial and he would have different sections for each of his team members. After the list was complete, Omi found a piece of paper and a pencil, then began setting up where he wanted each area set. The front yard was larger than the back yard, and was facing north, while the back yard was rather small, with trees planted all over in no orderly fashion.

Ken's memorial was going to be the one to the east side of the front yard, while Yohji's was to the west, and Ran's sat in the middle. There was no walkway to the front door, only grass, so he resolved to make stepping stones, with flower designs in them as a path of sorts.

Kisoka left to get Rin, then send him off to the nearest nursery to buy the flowers and trees that Omi had listed. It took Omi nearly two days to set up where he wanted everything, and how, but by Saturday, he was out in the sun with a spade and seeds and bulbs of all sorts, along with young trees in pots, and the occasional blossom in a pot.

He started with Ken's memorial, carefully placing each flower where he wanted it, as well as an occasional tree.

It took him most of the week to finish the area, but on Friday he came out with a watering can and the things he needed for Ran's area. Before he started, he watered the already planted flowers over to the eastern side. When the can emptied, Omi moved off to grab a hose. He crouched down beside the base of the tree letting the water soak into the ground.

When Rin walked out and stood behind him, Omi greeted him with a smile and a "Hey Rin-kun!"

"Hey Omi." Rin smiled. The young blonde had been a lot happier since he'd been working on this garden of his, and that released a lot of tension within the rest of them. "You'd think you were in love with this garden or something. First you'd never leave your room, now you work out here until its too dark to see, what's with you? Your working too hard! Lighten up!" the older boy grinned.

"...Lighten up?" Omi grinned widely. "You want me to lighten up?"

"I think that's what I just said!"

"You asked for it!" Omi laughed and turned the hose on him, effectively soaking him from head to toe. Rin stood there, sputtering and laughing, trying fruitlessly to get out of the stream of water.

Eventually Omi turned the hose off and just laughed at the now soaked boy, while Rin wrung out his shirt and shook off his hair, spraying Omi with little water droplets. Aniko laughed from the doorway, where he had been standing, ready to summon them in for lunch.

"Well get you a towel while we're at it," Omi snickered, while Rin just flung an arm around the blonde neck and laughed with him.

"Yeah, a towel would be good."

Omi waited with Rin in the room just inside the door while Kisoka went off to get a towel. Soon, Aniko came in with a camera, and quickly shouted 'CHEESE!' making both boys look up, before taking a picture and running off, the other two boys still laughing.

"You shouldn't get other people wet!" Omi said, trying to get out of Rin's wet grasp.

"Hypocrite," was all Rin had to say to that, before Kisoka handed him a towel.

* * *

Slowly over the next four weeks, Omi finished the garden and took careful care of it, mulching it as the weather turned cold. As well, Omi and the other three grew to get along better.

"Rin-kun?"

"Yes, Omi?"

"...We should get Kisoka-chan something for her birthday..."

"Like what?"

"...Roses or something."

"...You're really into flowers, aren't you?"

The two youngest boys were conversing over lunch, the day before Kisoka's birthday, December eighteenth. Kisoka and Aniko were currently out at work, while the other two were left at home. Rin had offered to keep Omi company and had been outside with him all morning, joking around and having snowball fights with him. They had come in when they got hungry, and, even though the youngest boy was smiling, Rin noticed that he was upset about something.

"Yeah... It comes with working in a flower shop..."

"...You used to work in a flower shop?"

"Yeah..."

"What was it called?"

"..." Omi was quiet for a little bit, stirring his hot chocolate, before smiling a little. "Kitten in the house."

"Ah... Kisoka went there once. She said it was really crowded, but for good reason, because there were 'two totally cute guys working there!' as she put it."

"Oh? Did she describe them?" Omi glanced up, with a slightly curious expression.

"...Yeah, there was a tall blonde, whom she could barely see due to a flock of girls crowding around him. She said he seemed very self-confident, if not conceited, and a little irritating, but he was cute."

"That's Yohji-kun... He's better than he seems, but he gets slightly irritating sometimes."

Rin laughed. "Well, there was him, and there was a tall brunette with blue-green eyes, and a dark tan. She said he looked like an athlete, a swimmer or something perhaps-"

"Soccer..." Omi cut him off quietly. "Ken-kun... was a soccer player..." the blonde stood up, abruptly, and brought his now empty hot chocolate cup to the sink, before cleaning it, drying it, and putting it away. "Excuse me..."

Rin watched as Omi retreated to his room, his body shaking with suppressed tears. He sighed. It was hard to talk about his past, Rin knew that from experience, and he felt bad for upsetting Omi, even though he _had_ volunteered the information.

Rin watched Omi's door close, then sighed and put away his own dishes, before heading out to buy the flowers for Kisoka. Curiosity getting the better of him, Rin headed off to this 'Kitten in the house' shop that Omi had worked at.

Just as Kisoka had said, the shop was full of girls, but not as full as he'd been lead to believe. The three boys in the shop were working quietly, moving about as though the girls weren't there. The blonde that Omi had said was Yohji was smiling at girls, but that smile seemed rather empty, while the brunette went about his work like some sort of empty shell of a person. The redhead just watered the plants, glaring at then girls, eventually snapping an 'If your not going to buy something, leave!' causing only a few girls to exit the shop. Rin made his way to the blonde, smiling cheerfully.

"Afternoon!"

* * *

Yohji looked up as a midnight blue haired boy, around Ken's age, greeted him with a cheerful 'Afternoon!' and smiled back.

"Afternoon yourself! Can I help you with something...?"

"Umm... yeah, actually. See, this girl I know is having her birthday tomorrow, and a friend of mine suggested we should get her some flowers, earlier. But, he's a bit upset now, too, so I thought I'd get him flowers as well, he enjoys them. Can you suggest anything?"

"A birthday and a 'feel better soon' kind of thing? Yeah, just a minute..."

He saw the boy nod and headed off. Roses, always roses for a girl, but what would you give to a gloomy boy? Lily of the valley, perhaps? He sorted through some flowers and brought out a few of both, and wrapped them, returning to the boy.

After the boy had paid and left, Yohji frowned a little. For some reason, he looked familiar, and Ken must have thought so, too, because he was watching the boys back as he exited the shop.

"...Yohji..."

"Hm...?"

"...That's the boy from the picture!" Ken's eyes were slightly wide, as he seemed to realize this.

"...You're right!" both stared at each other for a moment before Ken darted outside to find the boy, to no avail. By the time Ken got outside, the little blue beetle the boy was driving had disappeared.

Rin arrived back home, and parked the car, then walked along the pretty engraved stones that Omi had made to the front door. He put away his coat, and shoes, and headed down the hall to Omi's room. The door was closed, and locked, but mumbling was emitting from the room.

"-But he won't come back. I left him to die, didn't I? No! It wasn't my fault! It can't've been! I didn't kill him! ...But I didn't save him...That makes it my fault, doesn't it?" the quiet mumbling continued, making Rin frown a bit.

He'd had a few weeks where they'd been almost sure he'd recovered, but he was back at it again, now. Perhaps if he didn't say anything to Kisoka and Aniko, he'd get better again, and return to who he had been. But that wasn't really fair to Omi, or the other people that came into contact with him, was it? Because then he wouldn't ever get it out of his system.

He thought about this as he went to his room, to put Kisoka's flowers into water for tomorrow. When he returned to Omi's room, the boy was quietly sobbing, mumbling things that made no sense - Something about various cats and swords and such. When he knocked, he was ignored, so he just waited for his friend to open the door, which was the first thing Kisoka and Aniko saw when they returned home.

"Rin...?" Kisoka blinked at him, taking off her shoes before walking over to the boy.

"...It's happening again," Rin sighed, putting a hand sympathetically on the door, as if to consol the young occupant.

"He's talking to himself again?" Aniko frowned a little, listening as Omi mumbled something about his brothers death.

"That, and he keeps talking about a few diffrent weapons, and killing people, and something about the Devil being after him. he told me earlier a little about how he used to be, how he worked at the Kitten in the house - remember telling us about it Kisoka? He told me who the people you saw were, Yohji and Ken, and that Ken's a soccer player, not a swimmer, but once he said that, he just disappeared to here," Rin explained.

"I got curious, so I went to see this flowershop, and it seemed a lot quieter than you described it. The brunette, Ken, looked totally out of it, like Omi had when he first woke, almost. He's like a twin of Aniko, so I suppose thats why Omi mistook him for Ken. Yohji seemed normal, except for his expression, his eyes seemed kind of empty, like something tragic had happened, and he was trying to get over it, but not really succeeding.

"There was someone else there, too, though, someone you hadn't meantioned. A redhead with the most bizarre eye color I've ever seen, they were kind of purple, it was neat. Anyways, he looked really grumpy and kept demanding that 'If your not buying anything, get out!' It was really creepy how quiet he and Ken were..."

"Poor Omi, I don't know if we can do anything..." Kisoka sighed dejectedly. "We've done everything we could. We let him stay here, we didn't force any information out of him, we helped him work with things he liked and was used to, but he's still like this..."

"Your going to give up, after all this time?" Aniko asked, watching he door.

"...What else can I do?" Kisoka asked, the rhetorical question obediently remained unanswered. "We'll take him down tomorrow morning..." the boys nodded and Kisoka sighed again, putting her hand onto the door as Rin and Aniko headed off to make dinner. "I'm sorry, Omi, I tried, I really did."

* * *

A/N: Re-written... It's hard to believe after a year I'm finally getting back to this. It's also hard to believe how horrible my grammar was a year ago. Kill me now for any bragging I might have done about my English skills. 


	4. Chapter Three

It took a long time, too long for Ken's tastes, to track down the owner of the blue beetle. In fact, it was only due to a wonderful thing called the television that they actually found the house - lucky for them. Now, as Ken stood outside the house, he felt the anxiousness build up.

The garden in the front yard looked much like it had on the T.V., the black rose that the news had been raving about stood proudly in the middle of the yard. The small blue beetle that had visited their flowershop was parked in the driveway, almost going unnoticed with the beautiful floral arrangement in the front yard.

Hesitantly taking a step forward, Ken managed to make his way up the stone pathway to the door. Raising his hand to knock, the door suddenly opened, and there, standing before him, was his reflection. Or... maybe his twin... he couldn't be sure.

"Well... hi there..." his twin said, looking a little confused. "Can... I help you?"

"Er..." Ken responded, intelligently.

"...You must be Ken," the other boy mused, inspecting him, casually.

"...I... am. Aren't you me, too?" Ken asked.

His twin blinked. A few times.

"I'm... Aniko. Hashibara Aniko. And you're standing on my porch impeding my path to work."

Shaking his head, Ken smiled a bit. "Sorry... May I ask you something, before you go?"

"Hm?" the other brunette grabbed a small black briefcase.

"Have you seen... this boy?" Ken asked, holding out a picture. Looking at it, Aniko paused, frowned, then turned.

"RIINNN!"

"Yeah?" a light tenor voice responded from somewhere in the house.

"Rin... Where's Kisoka?"

"Kisoka? She went to visit Omi," Rin responded, matter-of-factly.

Biting his lip, Aniko turned around. "I'd take you, but I'm going to be late. Rin here is going to accompany you to your friend. Right Rin?"

"I am?" Rin asked, peeking out of the kitchen.

"You are!"

"But Aniko!" Rin frowned. "I was in the middle of - "

"Rin!"

"Ok, ok..."

Ken blinked at the interaction, then started to smile. "Thanks I - "

"Look, this isn't for you," Aniko responded, then pushed past him to the car.

A sigh could be heard from the hall. "Don't mind him... He's probably worried about Omi. He always is... With good reason, mind you... Kisoka always seems to ignore him these days, off in lala land taking care of Omi's garden, and checking on him and stuff. Ah well..."

Rin pulled on his shoes. "Aniko's stolen the car, so we gotta walk."

Ken smiled a little. "I can drive us."

"Sounds good to me!"

* * *

"You're taking good care of them," Omi said softly, looking over Kisoka's shoulder at the pictures she brought today.

"I do try. You did all the hard work, though, all I have to do is drag a hose around and water them," Kisoka smiled.

Omi smiled back, though it was fragile. It was disheartening for Kisoka to see Omi's steady decline from the last time she'd seen him really smile. His skin was pale, and pastey, his face hollow, and eyes blank. He was so heavily drugged that the redhead could barely tell whether it was him or the drugs talking to her.

Blue eyes turned back to the pictures, and Kisoka obediently began to flip them again. As she flipped, Omi suddenly frowned, grabbing her hand. "Wait... what was that just now?"

"Hm?" Kisoka blinked, looking at the pictures.

"Back a couple... there," Omi looked genuinely interested. "I didn't plant that."

Kisoka glanced down. A rose, so dark a red it looked black, stood to the left of picture, at the base of a sakura tree. The trees petals lay scattered around it, so bright in contrast to the flower, it was difficult to see how she might have missed it.

"Ah, our infamous black rose. It's been getting a lot of aire time, along with the rest of the garden..." Kisoka explained. "I'm not quite sure how it managed to get there but - "

"Roses don't grow that colour," Omi stated, shakily. His eyes were wide, and his hands, still gently placed on hers, were beginning to shake, sweat beading on his palms.

Suddenly, he pushed away, crying out and clasping his head. "Go! Go away! Take them away!" he said, fleeing to one padded corner of the small, sparcely decorated room.

Frowning, Kisoka stood. "Omi, I... I'll get rid of it if you don't like it," she said, setting the pictures aside and going to kneel by him. The boy merely shrieked and bundled himself further into his corner.

"Leave! Leave now!" he wailed.

Almost before she could react, doctors rushed in to sedate the nearly hysterical boy. Kisoka, unable to watch, allowed herself to be escorted out of the Institute. Standing on the large stone steps outside the castle-like building, she stared up at it, wind causing the leafs to dance around her feet, where they had fallen from their respective trees.

"Kisoka!" a familiar voice called, and a pair of arms immediately attached to her.

Glancing down, bright green eyes smiled hollowly at her, red curls dancing around in the wind as the smaller girl bounced with drug induced glee. Her arms moved to grab one of Kisoka's hands, leading her away to a tall oak tree.

"Do you remember me, Kisoka?" the girl asked, her eyes looking hollowly at her, still more.

"...Of course I remember you, Kiara..." Kisoka sighed, kneeling beside her.

"Did you come to bring me home, big sister?" Kiara asked, watching Kisoka slowly lay herself down.

"You know I can't do that," the straight haired redhead replied, watching the girl slowly climb up the oak tree.

"Of course you can! You just have to ask Pappa to sign the papers, then we can go home together, and be happy again!" the child insisted, sitting on the lowest branch of the tree.

"Kiara... I can't..." Kisoka insisted, then sat up. "Get down from there, you'll hurt yourself."

There was the soft crunching of fragile autumn leaves for a moment as Kisoka stood and walked to the branch, holding her arms up. The girls eyes lit for a moment, before she climbed higher into the tree.

"Pappa doesn't want me back... Mamma and Pappa are ashamed of me. You are, too, aren't you, Kisoka? You always come to play the caring one, but you hate me, too... I'm not crazy! I hate them always sticking needles in me! You won't stop it, so I will!" Kiara's voice rose in volume as she continued, before she stood on the highest branch she could manage.

Without warning, a rope made it's way around her neck, tying itself to the tree, and the child hung herself there. This, however, was no surprise to the other redhead.

"...You know I love you, Kiara," Kisoka sighed, softly. "But I can't take you home... because you're already dead."

Kiara looked up from where she'd hung herself, then slowly slipped herself from the noose to hop down the tree branches, light as air. "...Mamma and Pappa said I was crazy," she said in a sing-song voice, "but look at how the perfect child so easily speaks with her deceased, deranged younger sister!"

"Kisoka!" a voice called. Kiara turned away.

"...Come visit, once in a while," her youthful face shrivelled in anger. "Maybe next time, they'll see through you, then you'll understand."

"Kisoka!" the voice called again, and Rin appeared in Kisoka's line of sight.

"...Rin, what are you doing here?" Kisoka asked, sighing softly as Kiara faded from sight.

"Well... You know that person... Ken, the one Omi always used to talk about and stuff?"

"Yeah, what about him? Isn't he dead or something?" Kisoka asked, turning around, then blinking a few times.

"...I generally don't like to consider myself dead," Ken said, raising a slightly amused eyebrow at the girl's fish impression.

"Oh my God... it's... it's you!"

* * *

A/N: And here it is, after so many long months... or years... or however long it's been. BR Chapter Four! It's been a long time coming :tears:

I finally figured that if I was going to use OC's, I oughta at least provide some information about where they come from and what's up with the way they were so, there's the dirt on Kisoka. Rin and Aniko aren't quite as fascinating as she is, but don't take me the wrong way! I love Rin, he makes me a very happy Authoress.

Anyways, many, many, many apologies for the horribly long period between updates. I might have to put something else on hiatus to finish this, first, but it'll probably only be two or three more chapters. Maybe an epilogue. Much love:

Amy


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